Chapter 42 ceremonial tree

It was autumn again, and there were a lot of bad people in Shangliang Village. —their heads were smashed. Three years later, during the season when the fruit was ripe, the villagers started fighting. Zhang's family and Wang's family, Liu's family and Sun's family, one after another, their heads were all smashed, and they were wrapped around their heads before they continued beating; , The sisters-in-law are scolding each other, you scold my father, I scold your ancestors, scolding dripping, colorful!After cursing and cursing, he started to fight, and his face was covered with scales... People from the police station also came to arrest him twice, locked him up for a while, and released him again, mainly because he didn't beat anyone to death.

—Some people say that it will be soon. That, of course, is because of the tree. It was not until the fourth year after planting trees that people realized that food was worthless.After working so hard to plant an acre of land, when the time comes to harvest, the grain cannot be sold.When going to the grain store to sell grain, you have to entrust acquaintances, line up for a day, and be yelled at by people. In the end, except for the public, there is not enough money to buy fertilizer.Only then did people realize that what they said was planting trees was actually planting gold!God, they grow "Red Fuji".They never imagined that the 20,000 saplings that Liu Hanxiang bought on credit from the provincial horticultural farm would make them rich all of a sudden.Those hanging on the tree are all money!

At first it was fighting for the "land edge", you had a ditch, and I lost a ridge; later it was fighting for "sunshine", the branches you contracted came out, surpassed the boundary of the land, and blocked my tree; The "wind direction" also competes, especially during the days when the fruit trees are pollinating... When the fruit grows, stealing has become a trend.First, people from other villages came to steal, and later, people from the same village stole from each other.Children steal, adults also steal, you steal mine, I steal yours... If you can't steal it, it will be ruined.Fuck, why does the tree in his house bear so much fruit? I'm so angry!As a result, people are looking for "lawsuits" every day.

One day, Xianggu suddenly cried.She stood there with tears streaming down her face... In fact, the matter was very simple, and it was just that the woman from the Hammer family and the Ershui family pulled each other's hair and came to her, yelling and cursing, asking her to cut her off. A "lawsuit". "Lawsuit" is an apple. The woman from the Iron Hammer family said proudly: "...the child is shitting, you don't let the child shit?!" The woman from the Ershui family said: "Your shit is good, and your shit is rolled and eaten?!" The woman of the Iron Hammer family retorted: "Fart! Who doesn't have a child who eats shit? Your shit is on the memorial tablet?!" Ershui's woman said: "You fart! Your shit has wings and can fly ?!" The woman from the Iron Hammer family said: "Shit?! Children's feces are also used as medicine, and you can't eat them if you want to eat them!" The woman from the Ershui family said: "Your house is full of golden eggs, why don't you hold them on your head?!" The woman from the Iron Hammer family said: "Are you causing shit? If you get shit, say a word!" The woman from the Ershui family said: "You are harming the tree. You see that the eyes of the tree are black. Have you fed rat poison to those eyes?!" The Hammer family The woman jumped up and said, "Your ass is white, let the men in Baishui line up to fuck your ass!" Baishui is a town, and it is also the natal home of Ershui's women.The woman from the Ershui family said: "Your family are all masters who drink gold and urine silver! Go back to Wang Xiang, Wang Xiang sells a lot of 'dragon meat', don't you just sit on the 'Long Dun'?" There is a saying that dragon meat in the sky and donkey meat in king elephants.Wang Xiang is also a town, and it is the natal home of the woman from the Hammer family. Wang Xiang's "Longdun" (that is, the donkey whip) is very famous.The woman from the Iron Hammer family said: "Grasshoppers fighting crickets, what kind of wild insects are you in the field, you dare to call Wang Xiang?!" One is a golden ass!"... The cursing and cursing is still because of Apple.The fruit trees contracted by the Hammer family and the Ershui family are next to each other. It seems that the woman of the Hammer family saw that the Ershui family’s fruit bears bigger, so she became jealous. Prepared, trotted, jumped up, twisted a big apple on the fruit tree of Ershui's family, and wiped the child's butt... At this time, the woman from Ershui's family discovered it on the spot.

Xianggu was very sad.She didn't say a word, and suddenly burst into tears!This frightened the two scolding women, they didn't understand why she was crying all of a sudden... Immediately, both of them shut their mouths and looked at her stupidly.Finally, Xianggu said silently, "Where's Apple?" Ershui's woman said, "It's under the tree, go and have a look." In the evening, the bell rang again.Under the old pagoda tree, on the big millstone, there was a square wooden table, and on the wooden table was an apple—the big apple that was once used to wipe a child’s buttocks... Xiang Gu stood beside the milling pan and said very sadly:

"Now I will tell you what poverty is..." She pointed to the apple on the wooden table: "This is poverty. We are poor. We are poor in heart. We are so poor that we wipe our butts with apples!" As she spoke, she looked at a group of people in the village, her face was covered with tears... Her heart ached, and she was even a little confused.She used so much heart, she suffered so much tiredness, but what she wanted to wake up, she still didn't wake up.How could she not be sad? People looked at her, people were silent.People even find it a bit ridiculous.That's right, that bitch is really outrageous, she even wiped the child's butt with an apple, what a crime! ...But, speaking of it, how big a deal is it?Is it not easy to deal with that bitch?Just punish her.Is this worth Xianggu's tears?

Suddenly, someone jumped out from the crowd. This person was Baoguo. Baoguo had a wound on his head. He had just fought with someone over Apple... Baoguo shouted loudly: "Anyone who has the guts to stand up!" , Let everyone see! See if your ass is gold or silver?!" Immediately, the crowd also shouted: "Get her out! Get her out!..." Someone also shouted: "Where are the militiamen? Tie her up! Tie a few ropes and she will be honest..." However, when people's hearts were about to be confused, when the "struggle" was about to begin, people saw her eyes.It was a pair of watery eyes, she was so sad!Eyes full of sadness and despair.Standing there, the desolation in her heart diffused through her eyes, like a frightened ewe... Her voice was hoarse, and there was a coolness like moonlight in her voice.She heard the "poisonous" and "malicious" things from the people's shouts. Once such behavior starts, it is difficult to control.She doesn't let people like this, her eyes stop people's commotion.She said, "Baoguo, stand still, people's hearts cannot be bound."

Baoguo stopped, and the hand that rolled his sleeves itched and shrank back in displeasure. She said: "Don't steal, don't steal anymore, the more people steal, the poorer they become." She said: "If the head is rotten, the apple is rotten, and the heart is also rotten. It is so hard to plant, why let it rot?" She said: "Does the sun still need to be contested? Does the wind direction still need to be contested? That is a gift from God." She said: "An apple is an apple. Apples are grown, not stolen. Don't let them feel cold." She said, "Think about it, there is no thief on this earth who can become rich."

She said: "If you really want to steal, if you can't change it, just go and steal mine. I have twenty apple trees..." She said: "A village cannot be without etiquette. The 20 fruit trees I contracted are called 'ceremony trees'. When guests come to the village, I will take them to taste them. If anyone is tempted to steal them, they can pick them." Pick the big ones, okay, don't pick the green ones, the small ones, it hurts." Suddenly, there was a "quack" laughter in the crowd.No one knew from which corner the laughter came from, but some people still laughed... However, the laughter also met some people's eyes, and the laughter stopped abruptly.Yeah, people think Xianggu is changing... Her eyes are cold.Her voice is also like moonlight, cool.What she said became more and more incomprehensible.However, the villagers forgave her.Everyone knows that she is a stimulated person, and maybe she has some mental problems... But she is kind, and she treats people without malice.Since she became the village head, she has not touched a penny of people's money, and this is all visible to people.Now, where is there such a village chief?There are too few village chiefs like this.She is sick, she must be sick!Otherwise, how could it be so?However, she has extraordinary foresight, didn't she get the sapling... Besides, she just likes to say crazy things, so let her say it.

However, in the end, what she said still made people feel distressed. She said: "If people hate people, why do we grow apples? If people steal apples, why do we grow them? Anyway, I am the village head, I have a responsibility. I have to take responsibility. If it is punishment , then punish me. If Apple is guilty, I am the one who introduced apples, and I must be humiliated. Then punish me for standing here. Let me stand with the shit-smeared apple." People's hearts are fleshy, and people are ashamed sometimes... The villagers looked at her like they were looking at the moon in the sky.She is quiet, she is cool, and she makes people think.She stood there, although she had already said "the meeting was over", but none of the villagers left, and for a moment they felt ashamed and embarrassed to leave.They looked at each other as if something had been awakened.

In the days that followed, people saw the leaders of the village coming.The leader of the village wore a suit and walked around the orchard, saying: "The apples are very good, the variety is very good, very good!" Xianggu is the head of the village, and Xianggu accompanied them. Look at each place.I saw that the leader of the village still said the same thing: "The apple is very good, the variety is very good, very good!" This "very good" made the people who contracted the orchard feel nervous and trembling... But, Xianggu Take the leader away, and lead her to the garden under her name. Apples are something you eat, how can you not let people taste them?At this time, Xiangzhan said: "Try it, pick the big one, and taste it." So the leader said: "Okay, taste it, everyone!" He led the secretary and the driver to pick them up. Once they picked them up, they picked a lot, put them in the basket, and took them away with a "woo".Going down, the forest she contracted really became a "tree of etiquette".People from the village came, and the leaders of the county followed, but the leaders of the county were more casual, walking around the orchard, but without akimbo, they asked, "Is it Red Fuji?" She said, "Yes." " She asked, "How is the market?" She said, "The market is good." She said, "It's red and fresh, a good variety!" The county leader looked at it and smoked solemnly. His ash was very long. , The soot became the length of thinking. After a long time, he instructed: "Okay, be bolder, be bolder. Ah, build a thousand-acre apple orchard!" So, he led to that garden again, Pick one basket after another, "Pinpin".Then came the tax bureau, the electricity bureau, the industry and commerce bureau... what they talked about!So let's taste it, taste it again and again, and those fruit trees will be "ritualized" again and again... Twenty trees, that is the best garden in the village. When people looked at the tree, it was as if they saw their "smallness" and "poorness" in their hearts. Although they didn't say anything, they felt ashamed in their hearts.People began to feel sorry for her. She worked hard all day and night, and she was busier than anyone else... One autumn passed like this, and the garden was constantly "polite" by the people from above.However, no one in this village has ever picked an apple in that garden.Every apple on that branch has become a reflection, a brightness under the sun.If there are fewer, people will soon find out which day those fruits were "ritualized".The tree seems to be used to take care of people's hearts, and the remaining apples are brightly colored day by day on the branches, making people think about it.In winter, people found that there was still the last apple hanging on the sunny tree. The apple was picked high on the branch, and finally one day, it fell down with a "pop".At this time, people breathed a sigh of relief... Since then, no one has picked other people's apples anymore.Naturally, the heads of the villagers will no longer be rotten. On a winter afternoon, people were surprised to find that the old locust tree in the village suddenly became beautiful.There is a loop rope tied to the tree, and some small floating flags are tied on the rope.The old people stepped forward to look at it one by one. It was not a flag, but a red handkerchief.There are three handkerchiefs in total, and they are tied to the old tree. When the wind blows, they flutter like flags.The old people stepped back and muttered, "What is this for?" The learned "glasses father" said, "Is it a banner? Maybe it is a banner?" --no one knows. For a while, people felt a little in awe of this old tree, and when they looked at it again, it seemed that the tree suddenly had some kind of divinity.Then, for three days in a row, when people walked through the village, they couldn't help but stop and take a look at the tree. There was nothing wrong with the tree. The tree was fine, but it was clean and tied a "flag" ".Later, people watched around first, and then guessed all the way. After they guessed for a few days, they asked around, what is it for, whose child is sick, and if they need a petition? ... However, the words that came were so simple, as simple as a child's play: it was for wiping your nose.People still don't believe it, is it that simple?Not right.But, it's as simple as that, they asked around, and when they got to Xianggu, she said that it was for people to wipe their noses. At this time, people couldn't help laughing... Yes, for a long time, this tree has almost become people's "snot tree".Year after year, when the old people squatted under the trees to bask in the warmth, and when the men squatted under the trees to eat, they often "hummed" and wiped their noses on the trees.I don't know how many years, this has become a habit, the sound of "hum-chi" is often heard in the village street, the sound is so loud, it is the sound of throwing snot on the tree!In this way, as time went by, the tree became a snot-smearing tree, and the tree was always black and greasy, as if it had been painted with black paint.Such things are very small, and no one has ever stood up and said anything.However, once the handkerchief was hung on the tree, it became a kind of constraint, a conditioned reflex... From then on, no one wiped their noses on the tree again.Soon, when the old people walked out of the house again, there was a handkerchief hanging on their chests.I don't know who to start with, one learns one by one... That is the masterpiece of the daughters-in-law. For Xianggu, people are more and more respectful, which is a kind of respect for kindness and fairness.There are so many things in the village, and she is so busy... However, whenever she comes out, her hair is always unruly and she is always dressed neatly.When she saw someone, she would say something inexplicable to make people guess.That day, at the entrance of the village, she suddenly said to Tie Hammer's family: "Li Meilan, there is a grass on your head." The next day, she said to the bridegroom's wife: "Jiang Ruiying, I want to give you a comb." When she went to Maitun’s, she would say: “Hu Shufen, women are washed with water.” And Mo’s, she said: “Sister Chunhua, the tofu is white, and the hands should be white.”… These words always make me feel sick. It takes a lot of thought.At the beginning, the Hammer family asked everyone, who is Li Meilan?People say they don't know, no one knows if there is a "Li Meilan" in the village... What does this mean?Iron Hammer thought about it for a long time. Three days later, when she woke up, she heard a bird chirping in the tree. With a cry of "Tuner", she laughed all over the bed: God, her name is Li Meilan. !Look at the days, how did she forget her name? !So, when she got up this morning, she went to look in the mirror. She hadn't looked in the mirror for a long time... As for buying an official wife, it was the same. For a long time, she had been "unloading" what Xianggu said. In a word, I have never "unloaded" it thoroughly, it takes a lot of thinking!Also one day, she went to look in the mirror.Since then, the women have learned from each other, and when they go out, they all take a look in the mirror... Gradually, every time Xianggu comes out, the women can't help but look at her, what she is wearing, and what she is wearing. She combed her hair, watched her walking posture, watched her behavior, and then secretly followed suit.This is also strange, somehow, standing in the village street and cursing people has become less and less. However, people still think that she is sick.She is very sick!